Douglas Ross has accused Nicola Sturgeon of ‘cover-up and corruption’ over the SNP’s £250 million ferries deal after new documents revealed that the Deputy First Minister ultimately signed off the contract.
At First Minister’s Questions, Douglas Ross demanded that John Swinney appear before the Scottish Parliament to explain why the contract to build two new ferries was awarded to Ferguson Marine, in spite of legal advice and CMAL’s warnings.
However, Nicola Sturgeon denied that her First Minister was responsible for the deal, instead blaming disgraced former MSP Derek Mackay.
The newly revealed emails state that the Deputy First Minister confirmed ‘the absence of banana skins’, and that the contract was ‘clear to award’.
However, the latest documents still do not explain why the disastrous ferries contract was awarded against the advice of experts, which was confirmed by Audit Scotland last night, who said: “There remains insufficient documentary evidence to explain why the decision was made to proceed with the contract, given the significant risks and concerns raised by CMAL.”
Douglas Ross also revealed an SNP blunder that meant the redacted sections of the new documents could be seen by simply copying and pasting the text into Microsoft Word.
The redacted passages – which the Scottish Government have now removed from their website – revealed damning legal advice explaining the risks of pressing ahead with the contract.
One of the redacted sections stated: “The impact of a successful legal challenge could be high – in the worst case the contract could be declared ineffective.”
The First Minister refused to confirm whether or not the deal was unlawful.
Scottish Conservative Leader, Douglas Ross said: “Operation Blame Derek Mackay has a fundamental flaw.
"These new documents reveal that the person who signed off this deal was the Deputy First Minister John Swinney.
"This contract had more banana skins than the monkey house at Edinburgh Zoo – but John Swinney couldn't see any of them.
"Honest John’s hands are all over this dodgy deal. If he didn’t clear this contract, it wouldn’t have gone ahead.
"But the most crucial document in this affair is still missing – the one that explains why John Swinney charged ahead against expert advice.
"Another blunder has revealed that the SNP Government also ignored a stern warning that this disastrous contract could be challenged in court and declared "ineffective".
“Ferry experts warned the SNP Government about the risks. Their own legal advice was that the contract was high risk. But John Swinney pressed ahead, and now taxpayers and islanders are paying the price.
“There is a stench of a cover-up and corruption running through this whole sorry episode.
“If the First Minister won’t come clean, John Swinney must urgently appear before Parliament to face scrutiny and tell the public what on earth he was thinking.”